Mick Hartley

They tried to break him in every way: they offered him food and soap in exchange for converting to Islam, demanded that he fasts during Ramadan and read from the Quran. They lied to him that Iran had bombed Israel, that his parents had forgotten about him and did not protest. But Rom did not break. Against all the psychological terror, against the beatings he suffered several times a day, against the fear of lynching he experienced when he tried to escape – Rom held on to his identity. He prayed. And when he returned home, he repeated over and over: “I am a Jew! I am a strong Jew!“